Several schools have recorded low admission in nursery or kindergarten this year.

By this time of the year, the berths are either full or schools usually meet their “target number”.

At St Augustine’s Day School Calcutta, only 165 seats have been taken as against 300 in nursery and lower kindergarten.

At Julien Day School Ganganagar, it is 25 per cent less than previous years, while at another CBSE school, it is about 30 per cent less than other years.

Several heads have felt that since there is no guarantee when schools for the pre-primary children will reopen, parents are willing to keep them at home instead of admitting them to school at the age of three or four years.

But with low intake, at least two heads said, it would impact the revenue of the school, especially in a year when their fee collection had already suffered.

“By now we fill up more than 200 seats in the pre-primary. This year, parents have taken the final admission form but many of them have not come back,” said Richard Gasper, the principal of St Augustine’s Day School.

Many schools charge in the range of Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh at the time of admission, which also includes the fees for the first quarter.

There are parents who would rather use the money in their businesses that was impacted because of the Covid pandemic instead of giving it as admission fee, said a head.

“There are parents whose businesses have suffered the entire year and only now they are picking up,” said a principal.

Some of the parents have also asked the school for instalments and the schools are agreeing to it.

“By December we are through, but this year we will have to extend it to January or February. Since the situation is different we are also allowing instalments this year,” said Bobby Baxter, the principal of Julien Day School Ganganagar.

Schools are also apprehensive that the low intake will impact the school’s earnings.

“The pre-primary admission is a source of income for the school. We also plan the school’s development on the basis of that. This year, we are having to waive off fees but there are overhead costs and also salaries of employees that the school has to arrange for,” said Gasper.

“Pre-primary admission is important for every school, and if seats lie vacant, schools’ revenue will take a hit. The students of Class XII will move out and the flow of funds has to be there to make up for the deficit,” said Baxter.

An official of the CBSE school said usually the mailbox was full at this time even though the seats are filled. “Also, there are hard copies of applications which we would be able to respond to only if seats get vacant. But this year, there are hardly any mails for applications.”

Loreto Convent Entally is yet to start the admission process but the number of applications have gone down.

“The applications for nursery (four plus) has gone down by 10 to 15 per cent this year,” said principal Jessica Gomes Surana.